1996 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
An Improvement of English Education Based on the Linguistic Weaknesses of Japanese Engineers Overseas
| Project/Area Number |
07680297
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
教科教育
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| Research Institution | Hachinohe National College of Technology |
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Principal Investigator |
GROSSMAN Barry Hale Hachinohe National College of Technology, Liberal Arts, Foreign Teacher, 一般教科, 外国人教師 (00271487)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
TAKAHASHI Kaname Hachinohe National College of Technology, Liberal Arts, Associate Professor, 一般教科, 助教授 (60188000)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1995 – 1996
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| Keywords | English educaton / Japanese engineer / English ability / working overseas |
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| Research Abstract |
The aim of this research is to improve the method and the efficiency of English education in the Kosen (national colleges of technology) system by researching the English weaknesses of engineers of Japanese engineering companies living and working overseas (in English speaking countries). Therefore, this research is first focused on sending a questionnaire to the Japanese engineering companies and their foreign branches, and finding the weak points of Japanese engineers by analyzing the answers of the questionnaire. And the second focus is to hold a meeting of Kosen English teachers for considering objectively the results of the analyzes of the questionnaire.
Specifically, in February of 1996, a questionnaire was sent to 107 Japanese engineering companies' main offices in Japan, which were selected from about 500 companies according to two criterion ; having more than 3000 employees and selling more than 50 billion yen abroad. And in May of 1996, an English version of this questionnaire along with a listening-writing test for the engineers themselves was sent to 25 overseas branch offices of those companies. The answers of the questionnaire are subjective judgment of the persons who answered it. And they might well have a different criterion of grading the English abilities of their engineers. That is why we added a listening-writing test for standardizing their grading to the questionnaire. (See also our papers in the Research Report of Hachinohe National College of Technology, Vol. 31,1996.)
Furthermore, in JUly of 1996, we held a meeting with English teachers from many Kosens and an English trainer from a company. At the meeting, the results of the questionnaire analyzes were considered from many points of view.
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